As the old adage goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Fyre Fest, the clusterf*** of a non-event that happened in 2017 was so bad it landed its founder in prison for fraud. Billy McFarland promised a musical festival on an island retreat with big names, fun times, and an overall unforgettable experience. But the names cancelled or never showed, the times were more hazardous than fun, and you better believe we’ll never forget it.
That same convicted felon who did the first event is prepping for a second.
That’s right, McFarland has announced Fyre Fest 2 will be happening from May 30th to June 2nd on Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, Mexico. It was originally supposed to be April 25th-28th but according to McFarland, “We just needed the extra month to give our partners time to get everything ready.”
What has he been getting ready? “We’re going to have artists across electronic, hip hop, pop and rock,” McFarland said. “It’s not just music. We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning.”
The word “might” pops up two more times than it really should for a festival that’s going to be happening in three months. McFarland has absolutely nothing booked for this event at the time of this writing. The interviewer from “Today” pressed on this and asked if he expected “top-notch, A-listers to perform.” His response, “I really hope so, and I expect so from our conversations.” The word “hope” is about as good to hear as the word “might.”
Despite all the vagueness, Fyre Festival 2 is already selling tickets. The official site displays different ticket packages ranging in price from $1,400 to $1.1 million. $1,400 for the “Ignite” general access pass, $25,000 for the “Phoenix” ‘artist access’ tier, and the poorly named $1.1 million “Prometheus” package, for eight people.
[Editor’s Note: If you’ll recall, Prometheus stole fire from the Greek Gods and gave it to mortals. As punishment, he spent eternity chained to a cliff with vultures feasting on his entrails for his deceit. Maybe someone should remind Billy about that.]
“I think it’s always a risk,” McFarland said. “You’re taking a risk because I made a lot of bad decisions and messed up the first festival. Until it’s experienced, there is a risk component to it.” Normally you’d mitigate some of that risk by having an actual lineup, contracts, planned events. You know, like an organized festival.
If there’s any actual risk mitigation involved here, it’s that McFarland is reportedly “removed from the organization process.” Mexican production company LostNights has partnered with the convicted criminal to handle the logistics. Ticketing website soldout.com is promising full refunds if the event is cancelled. Too bad there’s a huge difference between “cancelled” and “clusterf***.” Maybe this time will be different. Stranger things have happened but we’ll sit this one out.
Both documentaries about the hellish festival are available to stream- “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” on Netflix and “Fire Fraud” on Hulu.
